Jersey City sues toothpaste company over historic Colgate Clock

Jersey Journal file photoThe historic Colgate Clock, seen last month at the foot of Essex Street in Jersey City, is now the subject of a lawsuit as the city tries to get maintenance costs.

Jersey City has taken the Colgate-Palmolive Co. to court, seeking more than $1 million it says it was promised in 2005 to maintain and operate the historic Colgate Clock on the waterfront, according to a report on Bloomberg.com.

The historic clock has told time on the Jersey City waterfront for some 85 years at the site where Colgate, which Bloomberg calls the world's biggest toothpaste producer, once owned a large plant.

The clock now sits at the foot of Essex Street, in the shadow of the Goldman Sachs Tower, where activists are hoping to create a park.

"Colgate made a clear-cut, direct promise in 2005 in a room full of Colgate representatives and city officials to pay $1 million to the city," Corporation Counsel William Matsikoudis told Bloomberg. "In reliance on that promise, the city has made expenditures but Colgate has failed to live up to its promise to pay."